Reports on four experiments exploring the relationship between decision difficulty and subsequent retention. (Author/AM)

Subjects read a passage and were questioned about the location or content of certain items in the passage. Performance was measured by monitoring response latencies and eye fixations. Apparently the locative information provides an index to the spatial distribution of sentences in the passage. (Author/RC)

Outlines four steps that can be used in conscious comprehension training, i.e., a process by which students can knowingly identify that thinking process as one, among others, which they can apply in many situations. (HOD)

A group of 51 young and 52 older adults read science articles and predicted their future test performance. Predictions were compared to comprehension and memory tests. Both groups made similar predictions, but those of older adults were related to their assessment of ease of processing, those of younger adults to their assessment of comprehension,…

Reviews the framework of the original Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, a scheme for classifying educational goals, objectives, and standards, describing how the revised Taxonomy differs from the original. The paper discusses the newly developed Taxonomy Table, examining its two dimensions (cognitive processes and knowledge) and illustrating how…

Examines the types of comprehension problems that students experience in classrooms and the tactics they use to resolve those problems. Reports meaningful distinctions among classroom comprehension problems, and finds that the tactics used vary systematically in relation to the situation (class size and instructional format) and the type of…

Children often confuse what is said and what is meant in referential communication. Five- and six-year olds were exposed as listeners or evaluators to a message in which they were either aware or not aware of the referent intended. Found that only six-year olds benefited from instructions to focus on the literal meaning of the message. (BC)

Results of two experiments involving 206 upper elementary school students supported the hypothesis that less-skilled readers suffer working memory deficits that contribute to comprehension problems independent of their problems in phonological coding. Results also suggest that constraints in an executive system may contribute to reading…

The minimalist hypothesis of inference processing is proposed. According to this hypothesis, the only inferences coded automatically during reading are those based on easily available information and those required to make statements in a text locally coherent. Five experiments with 249 college students support the hypothesis. (SLD)

The way in which second-language learners form mental representations of information they read was examined. Subjects read passages in their first and second languages and then demonstrated their comprehension of the information. Results suggest that information read in a second language is represented differently than the same information read in…

Examines the relative contributions of both verbal ability and prior knowledge to comprehension and memory for a televised movie, in both immediate and delayed recall conditions. Suggests that, although both factors aid in the comprehension process, they do so in different ways. (SR)

Suggests the contribution of analogies to text comprehension. Demonstrates that analogies are not functional in text comprehension, but instead they impair recall and inhibit processing. Considers the possible role of analogies as contributors to the aesthetics of an informative text. (HB)

Investigates the influence of subject-matter setting on comprehension monitoring by secondary school students. Expected comprehension monitoring to decline when material was presented as incontrovertible truth, as in science texts. Concludes that comprehension monitoring depends on subject-matter setting and, contrary to expectations, science has…

Presents a procedural model for discretely testing several of the multiple ways second-language readers comprehend and express themselves about the content and implications of reading passages, reviewing existing measures, illustrating the procedural model, discussing ways to scale the procedural item, and summarizing the practical advantages of…

Using a comprehension-monitoring model, 192 skilled and less skilled readers from 3rd and 6th grade read stories containing inconsistent information. Half of the students constructed a storyboard representation of the stories and half only read the text. Results reveal that storyboard construction enhanced the integration of text propositions and…